Four and a half minutes of ambient, intentionally thoughtful calm. Alden Groves knows how to craft something that washes over you like a wave of colour but impresses and provokes thought in the same instance. Sway is something of a creative masterpiece for this genre right now.
Fusing a delicate, mellow groove with flickers of jazz, soul and RnB all at once, the track is difficult to pigeon-hole. The central artistry of it roams free, so the experience just becomes about the music and the idea, and these have been brilliantly well presented.
The latter half sees hip hop take the reigns a little more, the second verse letting the artist really open up – poetic and personal outpourings by means of a mellow rap that seems as emotional and gentle as everything else, but that still pours through with a subtle level of intensity just to keep that realness and purity alive.
The song is beautiful, incredibly unique and crafted to a professional and considerate degree. The instrumental breakdown after the three-minute mark sees things reinvented completely; the final groove breathing back into the room like a soothing deep inhale and exhale. You get as much of an electro-pop vibe during these moments as anything else.
Alden Groves makes this about the listener, a rare and wonderful trait – it’s not outwardly about him. The subject is, sure – the story-line, the emotional ups and downs – but not the experience on the whole. It’s not overly indulgent or here to show off, it’s music being the true gift that it should be.
A brilliant song that impresses more and more so with each revisit.
Check out more music or download via Bandcamp.
